Katherine Schwarzenegger Follows in Mom Maria Shriver's Footsteps

From left: Raven-Symoné, Katherine Schwarzenegger and soccer player Alex Morgan

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By Jessica Wedemeyer

02/06/2012 AT 05:00 PM EST

Katherine Schwarzenegger has arrived: She made her TV debut Friday as a special correspondent for Entertainment Tonight.

"I was terrified," Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger's eldest daughter, a USC senior, told PEOPLE at the It's Our Turn Young Women's Conference the day after her on-camera interview with Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy for their upcoming movie This Means War. "Before I went in there, I was like, 'I'm going to throw up. I'm going to have projectile vomit in their faces, I'm so nervous!' "

Adding to her overall sense of nerves? "Chris Pine is gorgeous," she says. "I think it would have been easier if Chris Pine had not been there."

ET host Nancy O'Dell personally asked Schwarzenegger, 22, to conduct the interview, which gave the college student pause.

"What if people think, 'What is she doing? Why is she interviewing these really well-known people?' " said Schwarzenegger. "But if I don't do it, I'll feel terrible, because it's an amazing opportunity."

After some encouragement from her mother, who was also at the Young Women's Conference (which was modeled after her own Women's Conference), where she conducted an interview with surprise special guest Lady Gaga, Schwarzenegger accepted the gig and buckled down to prepare for her first Hollywood interview.

"She was like, 'I want to stay out of your way, but I'll help you if you need any help with questions or what to do,' " Schwarzenegger says about her mom. "She's an amazing mother, so she helped me with it."

And, after the segment aired, "She gave me really good feedback and was very supportive like she always is," says Schwarzenegger.

With graduation around the corner, she is also feeling the pressure to figure out the next chapter of her life.

"Since I graduate in May, I'm definitely having to figure out what exactly I want to do," she says. "I went back to the studio and did some work on the Entertainment Tonight set, and I think that's really interesting to me."